“I like it.”
“Order some room service. Curl up in front of the fire and play games.”
“We are not playing Monopoly, Quinn.”
“Oh, come on! I love it.”
“And you should love me enough to know I do not want to play that game with you.”
She hops up onto the counter, facing me, crossing one leg over the other. I do my best to ignore the way her robe parts, exposing her creamy thighs that I had wrapped around me last night.
“You’re just mad that I’m a better player than you.”
“There is no rhyme or reason to the game, other than it takes forever.”
“We can play strip Monopoly,” she says.
“That doesn’t make it better.” Although it does make it slightly more enticing. But I refuse to give in.
“You are such a poor sport.”
I set down my coffee mug and step between her legs. “Quinn, I love you. I will eat Brussels sprouts for you and never make you eat cereal and always clean up after the cats. But Monopoly? We have to draw the line somewhere.”
“Boo.” Except she’s smiling at me. “I think I saw Connect Four in the living room. Would you want to play that?”
“I think I could muster up the energy to play that.”
“We could also go for a hike too. The woman at the front desk said today would be a good day to go exploring before it gets too cold.”
“I’m on to you, Quinn.”
“What?” An innocent look is on her face.
“Throwing out Monopoly knowing I’ll say no to playing, and then giving me things I can say yes to.”
“I am doing no such thing.”
I nip at her bottom lip. “Your face gives you away, baby.”
“Nothing like working up a sweat before coming back and hitting the showers.”
“Maybe we can grill out tonight, too, before watching some movies.”
“I love it all, Jasper.” She sighs, her warm breath ghosting over my lips. “Promise me we’ll have nights like this on the tour.”
“I don’t know if we can do it here or in Switzerland, but I promise we’ll curl up every night after your show and do whatever we want.”
“We might have to catch a hockey game every now and then.”
“What a hardship,” I deadpan.
“You know, it won’t be the same watching the Knights without you.”
“Same. It’s going to be weird for a while. But getting to watch you perform? It’s the best trade-off.”
“I mean, if you had to win the Stanley Cup as one last victory lap, you couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out.”
I smile down at her. “You know fans are going to lose their minds when they see that we took the Cup into the studio with you.”
